The Strandloper Project is reaching it’s final stage and will end at Cape Recife on Saturday 5 November. The 2022 expedition headed east, hiking approximately 250km from Storm’s River Mouth to Cape Recife in Gqeberha.

The Strandloper Project is a citizen science project based in Sedgefield that researches ghost fishing and pollution.

With the expeditions from 2019, 2020 and 2021 this coastline walk, started on 24 October 2022, has increased the total distance of the South African shoreline surveyed by Mark Dixon and his intrepid volunteers during their coastal research expeditions to over 855km, an impressive 28.5% of the South African coastline.

Mark and team will arrive at the Cape Recife Lighthouse on Saturday 5 November 2022 between 16h30 and 17h00 after having surveyed a magnificent stretch of coastline mapping incidences of plastic pollution, noting marine mammals and sea life, diving to assess the state of the environment and spreading the vital message against pollution of all forms.

By the way: Mark and team are also looking for an accommodation sponsor for the night of 5 November and vital funds to keep their societal contributions alive via their Crowdfunding page here: https://gogetfunding.com/coastal-research-expediton/. UPDATE: Mark and team have accommodation sorted.

We chatted to Mark and asked him a few questions:

What is the benefit of the expedition for the public?

It’s a huge awareness programme on just the extent of plastic pollution.

And while South Africa, maybe internationally, isn’t as plagued by plastic pollution along the coastal sections, we have to be aware that you know of the impending threat that could occur if we don’t hold municipalities accountable and we don’t modify our habits.

Everybody thinks that everything that they see on the beach is actually from ships and that’s a very incorrect view to have. It’s actually closer to ALL or 90% which is actually flowing in from the land.

This is also borne out from local research done by Toshka Barnardo in the Baakens Valley who, in only 2 weeks, removed 15 bags of litter from the Baakens River in Gqeberha. All of this was collected in 2 days (once a week) from 1 spot where a stormwater canal flows into a small tributary of the main river. Toshka says that the nets aren’t even stopping all the litter which is coming from our streets.

As Toshka also says; “We are the problem. We can’t blame foreign ships or other people this time. Let’s stop litter at the source!”

What plastic product has been most prevalent this year?

The most prevalent item has been bottle tops from the likes of your two litre carbonated drinks, water bottles and milk tops. All of these items have quite a long drift and once they are in the ocean, they can drift to over kilometres from the source of where they’re introduced into the ocean.

We easily fill up to one five litre container in one day and, in certain patches we fill a five litre container with bottle tops in a couple of metres, which demonstrates just how dense it has got.

The next item that has been rather staggering is squid jigs and, in the area from Storms River to Jeffrey’s Bay which are probably attributable to the chokka fleets off of St. Francis. These lost squid jigs drift in the ocean and wash up on the beaches.

As with the plastic bottle tops we’re filling up five litre containers per day with squid jigs.

This has been very disturbing as, in the past, if we got one squid jig per day it was a lot. They are incredibly sharp, very high grade stainless steel so from a recycling perspective they do have some value to them.

You just need someone’s dog walking on the beach or marine mammal or bird to ingest one and that is going to do a huge amount of destruction to the digestive tract and probably have a lethal consequence.

Third on the list is crab/crayfish pots which again points to commercial fisheries. There is a very high density of crab pots along the coastline. These get ‘lost’ in rocky seabeds, can’t be retrieved and then slowly the currents work them loose and they wash up.

They are a big threat and are commonly referred to as ‘ghost fishing’. These unattended pots have bait in to attract the crabs which enter the pots and die whenever the pot can’t be recovered. As they decompose, they then attract more crabs and other similar organisms which in turn die in there and the cycle of destruction continues leading to perpetual killing off of animals whilst that crab pot is still in the ocean.

Fourth on the list are the many other plastic bottles – particularly water bottles.

What’s disturbing about this is the Pet bottles have a huge recycling capability and they have a high recycling value of between four and four and a half thousand rand per ton. We have interviewed people who collect bottles and they can collect four tons to five tons per month giving a potential turnover of around R20 000 per month.

At a rough estimate we have walked past around R30 000’s worth of bottles on this expedition to date.

More needs to be done to excite people about the intrinsic value of these items to the recycling industry.

Which cetaceans have you seen in large numbers and where?

We have seen primarily humpback whales and some really lovely numbers of them, big groups from Storms River through to yesterday, we saw a lot of mother calf pairs, a lot of breaching and breaching training of calves to build up their muscles for the migration down south.

So that’s been really exciting.

And then on Thursday morning as we were going around Shark Point at Cape St. Francis, we observed two large adult humpback whales swimming next to each other and just steaming along. There was no slap on the water, tail lobbing or breaching, but that was just as they came up to take their breath and then as they slid under the water again. It’s just absolutely exquisite to see that.

Would you say that there has been an increase in pollution? And specifically what type/s have increased?

We definitely have seen an indication of increases, especially in microplastics. We’ve picked up a huge amount of that in the first 80 km from Storms River and that’s very disturbing.

That plastic pollution usually flushes out of river systems, which indicates that it is coming form municipal infrastructure, getting into rivers or out through stormwater drains and from there into the ocean. From there they drift along as well, washing up on the beaches.

Generally, if you’re not looking for them, you’re not aware of them. But, once you know how to see them, you suddenly realize what the density is.

As part of our research we do a transect of 10 meters by 2 meters every 5 and record densities of up to 100 particles per 20 which doesn’t sound like a huge amount, but compared to other sections of coastline and other years, it’s not the highest, but it’s probably marginally higher than the mean.

Thankfully the microplastic prevalence dropped off as we got into St Francis Bay and towards Jeffrey’s Bay.

Whom do you share/sell the data with/to?

We don’t sell our data, but we do have a comprehensive database – probably the most comprehensive database of one single entity having surveyed a section of coastline.

We do share the data with municipalities and with other conservation interest groups.

We try and look at why that river or municipal infrastructure is losing so much plastic into the ocean and to advise how to reduce that and put in mitigation protocols to stop that in the future which doesn’t happen overnight.

This is something that once again needs a paradigm transformation from the public. We cannot only rely on municipalities to do everything and we all have to change our lifestyles to reduce our reliance on plastic.

Will your data contribute to positive action being taken by National, Provincial or local Government?

We’ve had a very positive response and particularly from the George municipality. We are based in that area and so we’ve seen some positive there that’s once again, it’s a slow thing.

There are other more pressing needs within the municipality there than worrying about plastic or that’s their perception. We do hope that it will be taken up.

We’re working on a lot of interventions to reduce plastic flow into the ocean and hopefully in the next twelve months we’ll have something that would be able to mitigate plastic, getting into rivers and the ocean, and that we’d be able to go to particularly municipalities.

We haven’t engaged with national yet.

Provincial we’ll probably have some success with, particularly the Western Cape and their municipalities. that said we have a number of municipalities that are watching both our expeditions and some of what we discuss about plastic and how to sort that out.

What is a GOOD LESSON that you have learned from the expeditions?

We’ve learned that I think it’s very important, while we have in the past just highlighted the plight of plastic pollution and where the high densities are along the coastline, what we’ve seen isa very positive outcome in this particular expedition in suggestions on what can be done.

Simple things like collecting your plastic packets, if you own a business, have a place where you can collect plastic bottles that are consumed on your premises and encourage your staff to collect plastic bottles from their community and homes (not forgetting that when you reach a ton, it can be sold and that benefit can go directly to the staff in the form of a bonus).

We talk to many people that are very interested in these models, and we’ve now learned that we have to start putting a lot more effort into those programmes to easily enable the recycling of plastic and remove it from the environment.

What is on the cards for 2023?

We have probably two more expeditions in the wings.

We have a gap between Hartenbos and Arniston and have been denied access through the Hoop Nature Reserve twice now. We really want to survey that area, especially pertaining to the De Hoop Marine Protected area.

We have enjoyed the Eastern Cape – it’s warmer, the water is warmer, the sand seems to be a little bit firmer, it is just beautiful.

Secondly we are looking at potentially surveying from Cape Recife for about 200 km along the coastline past Alexandria towards East London. Obviously we have the obstacle of getting through SAN Parks, but they have allowed us to traverse some of their other reserves in the past along the coastline.

We have also been asked to survey from Hermanus that towards False Bay.

How do you propose we solve this plastic litter problem?

There are a number of options and, once again, it requires a a paradigm shift from individuals, communities and government.

If you take South Africa, we have an electricity issue and plastic is a resource for generating electricity – there are already systems in place where you can fuel a generator with plastic as a source of fuel that doesn’t emit bellowing smoke to produce electricity.

This is one of the solutions that we’re looking at getting into communities. The communities can then get credit for electricity produced per kilogram basis of plastic that’s collected. This would very quickly eliminate any plastic lying on the ground because it then becomes a commodity.

You also get a system where you can distill diesel from plastic. This technology has been utilized in places north of our border ironically.

This is ideal for municipalities to ‘double dip’ in terms of service delivery as they can fuel their fleets of vehicles whilst NOT putting all the plastic waste in a landfill. Place the plastic into a distiller and get diesel in return.

That same rubbish truck that goes around collecting all the plastic can actually be fueled by the plastic that is collected. In addition landfill sites have a longer life with less toxic waste.

We need to look at plastic pollution as a resource and have the resources to capitalize on it. I think very few South Africans realize the monetary value of plastic that they’re discarding on a daily basis and that has to be communicated across the country so that it’s not discarded.

Each time you throw plastic away you are throwing cash on the ground.

Find out more about the Strandloper Project here: http://www.strandloperproject.org/

Views Since 15 July 2022: 91

Gqeberha’s Latest News and Events can be accessed on MyGqeberha.com.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE

Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

Latest posts by Alan Straton (see all)

• Cockroach Problems in Flats Can Need a Building-Wide Response - 18 October 2026
• Top Click Explains Who Its SEO and Google Ads Service Is For - 17 October 2026
• Sky Dental Helps Sandton Plan Cosmetic Care Before December - 17 October 2026
• H2O Guru Offers SANS1657 Bottled Water Testing for Summer - 16 October 2026
• The Gold Avenue Flags the 91.67% Krugerrand Seller Mistake - 16 October 2026